ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: The third meeting of the Regional Steering Committee for the Advancement of Rural and Island Women of Asia-Pacific Region (RSC-AP) concluded here on Thursday with the adoption of Islamabad Declaration that called for their increased participation in political systems and elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against them.

The RSC-AP meeting, presided over by Begum Sehba Musharraf and attended by first ladies and ministers from member nations, adopted the declaration unanimously urging the national governments to address issues of rural and island women in their operational plans.

The meeting also agreed to further the objectives contained in the declaration through networking and developing mechanisms for documentation, exchange and dissemination of various best practices, especially of micro-credit schemes among the member states.

The declaration emphasized that all future strategies should among others focus on the following objectives:

i) Increasing the representations and participation of rural and island women in the political systems of our countries, particularly in legislative processes and providing them training in legislative procedures and issues;

ii) Integrating rural and island women into the national and international mainstream;

iii) Integrating gender concerns in policy formulation and in impact assessments of all projects;

iv) Institutionalizing gender budgeting;

v) Facilitating rural and island women's access to credit and markets;

vi) Formulating and implementing health policies to address the urgent health concerns of rural and island women, particularly HIV/AIDS and reproductive health;

vii) Encouraging rural and island women to apply their indigenous knowledge for the conservation and preservation of the environment.

viii) Eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against rural

and island women through a policy of zero tolerance;

ix) Prohibiting trafficking of women and girls.

x) Ensuring that migration does not result in the exploitation of rural and island women condemning them to performing low status and low paying jobs;

xi) The sharing of modules of capacity building, through, inter alia, exchange of visits of women councillors, legislators and members of cooperatives, within the region;

xii) Introduction of information technology in rural schools especially for girls;

xiii) Developing and implementing projects to reduce the impact of natural disasters on rural and island women. -APP